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Peperomia are non-toxic too. They also tend to want less light and less water than Pilea. Red, Frost, and Watermelon are all interesting looking. Maybe it depends whether your friend is more likely to be an over-waterer or an under-waterer. Rattlesnake plants are non-toxic and cool looking but they are calatheas, which have a reputation for being a little more difficult than "beginner" houseplant.
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Nov 24, 2021 13:30
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What's the mysterious glowing green box under the Xanadu? What palms are those to take a frost? It looks like a Chinese Fan on the right but the other two are far enough I can't tell. I bought a Sago Palm from Home Depot on clearance a couple months ago and it looks exactly the same as it did on day one. I know they are very slow growers, but can anyone guess in what direction it's going to go? Like, are the tall leaves at the top the newer ones and they will slowly lay down and turn into a very short, wide plant? Are the smaller leaves at the bottom the newer ones and they're going to get wider and start sticking up? Is it going to stay pretty much like this but get new tall ones that match the existing five while retaining the bottom rim of smaller ones? On google images pretty much none of the Sagos have this shape, so I'm just not sure what the growth habit is. [edit]Sorry, I haven't posted an image in years and didn't realize you can't timg an attachment and now can't delete it after posting either. Lakitu7 fucked around with this message at 02:18 on Dec 15, 2021 |
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Dec 15, 2021 02:05
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Yoruichi posted:Hello, does anyone know what these spots on the leaves of my ficus are? They look like salt crystals, and can be just brushed off. The plant seems healthy, but I'm not sure if these are normal or not. Sweet potato plants do this too and it's considered benign-- basically just the plant secreting stuff it doesn't want, but not indicative of it being unhealthy. Wikipedia has an image of a ficus doing it that looks just like yours, so it must be common enough: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ficus_benjamina_secreting_minerals_through_leaf_glands.png I found an article about rubber plants doing it too: https://greenexperimentcompany.com/white-spots-on-rubber-plant/. They're thought to be either benign or helpful to the plant.
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Dec 23, 2021 18:35
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Ok Comboomer posted:has anybody tried any of the $35-60 indoor automatic irrigation dealies on Amazon/elsewhere? I read a lot of reviews for those types of products initially and got scared off by too many reports of failures. If someone has to come check on the automated system while I'm on vacation, it's defeated the whole point. I ended up going with Blumat Classics because they're passive systems with nothing to really fail. Water siphons very slowly constantly from whatever reservoir into the plant. Keep the reservoir full and watering is taken care of. For vacation, those can be 5gal buckets and you're good for months. https://www.amazon.com/Blumat-Classic-Automatic-Watering-Stakes/dp/B0001IOZ98/ https://www.amazon.com/Blumat-10520-Automatic-Watering-X-Large/dp/B008SR2VTK/ At this point I have 1-2 per plant and use them permanently on anything that isn't a succulent. The marketing about "no more overwatering" and adaptive flow rates are largely untrue. You can run them from a large bucket into a small container and it will happily fill that small container until it overflows, so you can definitely overwater, and all pots need drainage. The way to regulate is to change the relative heights of the plant vs the water reservoir. Ideally if you're going on vacation, you set this up a couple weeks before. Roughly, small plants in 4-6in pots get one "classic" and a vase of water one shelf below them. Medium plants 8-10" get one "classic" and a vase at their level. 12" pots get one XL or 2 small and a vase at their level or above. Large plants in 12-20" pots get 2 XL and the vase may or may not be elevated. There's some adjustment here for individual plants; thirsty ones like ferns follow rules for 1 size up. It's a bit of a pain to set up and adjust them all to equilibrium, but once you get it going, big enough reservoirs can happily last you a month or more without attention. I've been doing this since May 2021 x 30+ and haven't had a "failure" where one just stops working suddenly. There are a bunch of much cheaper knockoffs on Amazon but the reviews of them randomly failing have scared me off. If your mom has a handful of plants and wants to go on vacation for a few weeks, this + a 5gal bucket will take care of it nicely.
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Jan 2, 2022 17:02
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Ok Comboomer posted:Have some chill videos of this affable stoner I recently discovered getting hype about sago palms and poo poo. I like his van and his attitude: This guy's fun, but here in Minnesota there's not a lot of Sagos on the side of the road. People just throw away hostas and daylilies; basically all suburban landscaping here is based on hostas, hydrangeas, and daylilies. For better or for worse, Home Depot likes to bring about 50+ palm trees of various kinds here in the spring. I don't just mean houseplant Sagos and Majestys falsely marketed as houseplants but like 10gal King and Queen palms that can't live outdoors here in zone 4a and sure can't live indoors either, so I guess people just buy them to sit on their deck for mid-summer until they die  . It's absurd and maddening to me. My Home Depot Sago is still sitting in my living room looking 100% identical to that photo I posted last month. Hopefully in like 5mo it'll be warm enough that I can put it outside for a while and see it actually grow a little but for now it seems to be dormant and might as well be artificial. My Bamboo Palm is doing well in the same environment and sending up new shoots. I added a Kentia last week that's doing fine but still adjusting. I'll wait until spring to transplant that one.
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Jan 2, 2022 17:38
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Guildenstern Mother posted:
My spider plant is one of the worst diva plants I own. I've had less trouble with my calatheas and fiddle leaf fig. People talk about them as these unkillable newbie plants akin to snake plants and ZZ plants, but the one a friend at work gave me didn't get the memo. Mine's really only happy when it's outside in the summer. I tried twice to keep it alive indoors year-round at the office, both near and far from a large south facing window, and it'd just slowly wither away without new growth until I'd bring it home and put it outside on the deck in full sun. In the winter I can keep it alive in full sun in a south-facing basement windowsill but the leaves slowly brown from the tips until it can go back outside and thrive again. Your symptoms could be underwatering, or they could be overwatering. If the soil's not soggy and not smelly, you're more likely under- than over-watering. It could also just be normal death of a couple old leaves and you're overthinking it. Otherwise, they also have a reputation for hating tap water, so switch to rain or distilled if you can, or at least flush the soil every now and then to get extra minerals out. Somehow the mother plant mine was propped from lived for years in a windowless office under fluorescent light with a monthly shot of hard office tap water but my prop demands full sun and rain water  .
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Jan 4, 2022 00:24
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actionjackson posted:Hi, can anyone recommend me a tall houseplant for this space? Right next to where the floor lamp is. The only light source is the wall behind me, which has two pretty large windows that face southwest (I can provide a picture of that if it's helpful). Someone said to look at bamboo, but I know there are a ton of varieties. The ceiling is ten feet, with the soffit at nine feet. The sofa arm height is two feet. So the bottom of the plant won't have sun exposure, but the rest would (I could also get a stand of course). Most of the day, when it's light out, it will get partial sunlight, but least now in the winter it will get very direct sunlight in mid-late afternoon. thanks! Tall mid-low light floor plants (I'm assuming you want a floor plant; many more options if you're getting smaller on a table): Dracaena Lisa or Dracaena Fragrans (corn plant) are each commonly available and would do fine in that spot. Expect to pay roughly $150 at a nursery for ~5ft tall, as low as $50 if you find them at big box (probably ~3ft tall). You see these all over shopping malls and stuff. They're go-to plants but you might be tired of them. Bamboo Palm: Probably what somebody meant when they said bamboo (it's not actually bamboo). They're beautiful and easy palms, cousins of parlor palms. Nursery prices here range $120-200 for ~6ft tall. I haven't seen them at big box but most local nurseries have them. Dumb Cane (Dieffenbachia) can grow there but it'll be a table plant for some years until it's tall enough to be a floor plant. I haven't seem them sold in floor-plant size. Ponytail palm: They can get that big, but it'll cost you $200+ for 4ft+. Ming Aralia: you're borderline on too dark for it. ~5ft tall are about $200. Kentia Palm: beautiful easy palms but expensive, ~$300 You can get a "pole"-grown pothos or vining philodendron but in those sizes they're $200+ and who wants to pay that kind of money for pothos? Do NOT buy a Majesty Palm (very tempting when they're ~$30 at home depot); they are not good houseplants for non-optimal conditions. Don't get a Fiddle Leaf Fig either; that's not enough light for that spot. Monsteras and philodendrons (e.g. Xanadu) and peace lily (e.g. Sensation) would work but they're wider than they are tall. I'm pretty sure I remember that you're in Minneapolis, so the prices I'm quoting should be dead-on for you. Tonkadale has most of it (not sure they have Kentias). I bought my Bamboo Palm for about $120 at Bachmans and they're about $200 at Tonkadale. Lakitu7 fucked around with this message at 19:50 on Jan 4, 2022 |
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Jan 4, 2022 19:39
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actionjackson posted:that's very helpful, thanks! If you're going to do a raised planter, then you're not going to put a tall plant in it; it'll be top-heavy and those plants need bigger pots than that. At that point you're among all the classic low-mid light easy-care mid-size square-proportions options: snakes, ZZ's, monsteras, peace lily, cast iron, Chinese evergreen, dumb cane, smaller philodendron varieties, parlor palms (Chamaedorea elegans, the short cousin of the bamboo palm), smaller younger specimens of the same dracaenas. Your options might be a lot fewer if you need something non-toxic for pets, so be sure to look up each one first, if you have some. Bamboo palms and parlor palms are both safe though. DeadlyMuffin posted:Don't Kentia palms also get quite large? Lakitu7 fucked around with this message at 00:14 on Jan 5, 2022 |
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Jan 5, 2022 00:02
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actionjackson posted:thanks - I would repot so I assume just use the same diameter planter as the plastic one it comes in? is the fact that the base wouldn't really have any light exposure an issue? since it's behind the sofa. I don't think I'd worry about the bottom of a tall floor plant getting less light; probably the first 1.5-2 feet is all pot anyway. You probably want to up-pot by 2in (diameter) from whatever it came in; that's the standard advice. However it's winter and there's a small risk to up-potting in winter; depending on the plant and how tolerant it is to root damage, it's harder for it to get enough light to re-grow and recover, so you might just double-pot it (nursery pot inside the nicer pot) until spring. If you're re-potting with fresh, commercial potting soil then there's probably more than enough fertilizer and you wouldn't need more unless you're keeping the same pot/soil for more than a season. That raised pot also has no drainage, so it'd be very easy to overwater and drown your plant. You wouldn't be able to add a saucer or drill a drainage hole. The best you could do would be to double pot and raise the second pot up a little inside the larger pot. Overall, I'd recommend buying a bamboo palm and putting it on the floor (with a pot with drainage and a saucer) over spending $125 on a raised drainless planter and $50 on a parlor palm. The Bamboo Palm for $125 will look a lot more impressive, and you could still spend the same $50 on a nice (floor) planter + saucer Ok Comboomer posted:Also a big schefflera (schefflera actinophylla) or false aralia. Maybe also cordyline.
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Jan 5, 2022 02:06
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actionjackson posted:thanks, it does have a removable drainage plug though (otherwise that'd be weird consider the seller/price). I assume you take it outside or to the sink, water and let the water drain out, then put the plug back in I agree with everything Wallet said. Most of what I've read says rocks on the bottom doesn't work. Some references: https://extension.unl.edu/statewide/dodge/the-hard-truth-about-rocks-at-the-bottom-of-planting-containers/ https://www.indoorplantsforbeginners.com/should-i-put-rocks-in-the-bottom-of-my-pot/ Sure, in theory you can move the plant to a sink/tub every time you want to water, then move it back after a while, but that's a heck of a lot more time and work vs just having a pot with drainage and a saucer and dumping some water in there as-needed. I spend enough time on the plants as it is, and that's with them all on irrigation systems, so having to move each one to water it every time sounds terrible. From those photos I can't tell if that pot even comes off the stand? If not, you'd be lugging it to the tub instead of carrying to the sink. Based on your photo/description I'm imagining this spot as "medium light" rather than "low light". In medium light, these "low light" plants should still get some growth, but certainly not as much as they would with ideal bright indirect light. Certainly you could do grow lights and there are some grow lights out there that are easy on the eyes. Personally I'm avoiding grow lights because I want to limit how much time/money I spend on this hobby, and stopping once I've run out of spots with adequate natural light seems like a reasonable line in the sand. Here's my Bamboo Palm. With the pot it's a little over 6'. It's in a cheap plastic home depot pot + saucer combo. I'm not a fancy pots guy. If you look closely you can see a $1 plastic saucer under that, to protect the rug in case it were to ever overflow past the built-in saucer. In the back is a small vase of water hooked to blumats because, as above, I'd rather not worry as much about watering. The brighter-green frond is new growth that just opened up last week. There's some new shoots at the bottom too. I actually just moved it to this spot by the door; it was further from windows before. 
Lakitu7 fucked around with this message at 01:29 on Jan 6, 2022 |
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Jan 6, 2022 01:26
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actionjackson posted:thanks - looks nice. maybe i'm just lucky then because i've had rocks in my snake plant pot for quite a while and haven't had any issues. It's mainly just a design thing for me. Mine's in a 12 but you'll have to go to the store, see what size it's in, and add 2 inches. You don't want to go much bigger than that; "over-potting" is a good way to retain too much water and lead to overwatering. I do prefer detachable saucers for utility. Even if you usually top-water you'd still want to give them a good bath every now and then, and removing the saucer makes that a lot easier. Snake and ZZ plants can survive a whole lot of abuse that would kill almost anything else, so I wouldn't quite take "it hasn't killed my snake plant" as strong evidence. For example, this guy tried to see how long they could survive in a windowless basement utility room with zero light and zero water. After 100 days he gave up because they were still fine (while all the other newbie plants were near-dead long before that). Sure it didn't grow at all, but it was fine (worth noting that plants need less water when they get less light, so a better-lit snake probably wouldn't live 100 days without water). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lued_aTVX4w&t=439s
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Jan 6, 2022 04:09
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actionjackson posted:also why does it cost $120+ for the bamboo palm? it's just a plant, idgi Lots of plants are a lot more expensive than that, honestly. Bamboo palms aren't really rare but most plants that can grow in relatively lower light will take a lot of years to get to the 4-6ft sizes you're looking at, even in optimal greenhouse conditions, so you're paying for the years of care it received before you bought it. Bamboos are a bargain compared to Kentias at $300+. Pretty much anything that tall is going to cost some money; even cheap stuff like Pothos can be $100+ if you get large pole-grown plant. actionjackson posted:would a Cataractarum Palm be good for my space? or is it a lot more work Cat palms are in the same genus (Chamaedorea) as Parlor and Bamboo, so they have a lot in common. It might need a little more light than Parlor or Bamboo, or it might not, depending on who you ask. It could be a fine in-between option in both size and price if a Parlor is too small and a Bamboo is too big + expensive. If you're putting something on a stand you could go Ponytail or Sago too (neither of which are real palms but tolerate low-mid light too).
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Jan 6, 2022 19:57
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If you buy a new plant and it doesn't do well, or if you want to be proactive about it and guarantee survival of your new plant, just switch sides. The snake plant (with its platform) will be fine on the far side of the couch from the window, and whatever else you buy will be much happier on the side closer to the window.
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Jan 7, 2022 00:13
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I have one of those giant "sensation" peace lilies from home depot too. I paid like $35. The problem is I've never seen them in the store again, just smaller ones at proper nurseries for 4x the price, so I stopped recommending them to friends because they're disappointed when they can't find them. It'll survive on lower light but probably not flower much after the first couple months unless you give it better light, so a lot like a common Anthurium that way. Even without flowers the huge leaves are beautiful though. Also don't buy a standard variety peace lily and expect it to get that big; it's the specific "sensation" kind.
Lakitu7 fucked around with this message at 04:20 on Jan 7, 2022 |
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Jan 7, 2022 04:17
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Nice! Yeah, I still like my Sensation peace lily. Sure they're common houseplants but the leaves on the giant ones are almost like a poor man's king anthurium and everyone who comes in my house doesn't have enough plants to be a plant snob. I didn't know Lowes carried them too; mine is on the other side of town so I rarely get down there vs. Home Depot is close. That window should be more than enough light for it.
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Jan 19, 2022 15:47
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Funny enough I saw the triple-ponytails last week at Lowes but not Home Depot. Costa must be shipping them all over. They're 3 in a pot, maybe 8 inches high after the pot, for like $25. I like the look now and I thought about buying but I'm just not sure how they'd do as such a tight a multi-pot? Would you have to try to separate them in some years? I've seen big ponytails with multiple stems out of one bulb/trunk but not multiple bulbs only inches apart.
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Jan 25, 2022 14:43
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Wallet posted:I dunno but I want someone to try. Given the way their stems form and how well they generally handle being under potted I'm guessing they'd be fine. They might even merge eventually? I guess you could split them right after purchase but it would be an interesting experiment to leave them tight. If you wanted to split them I'd certainly do it sooner rather than later. Merging would be really cool. I'm just worried about them competing instead. I agree with the folks who don't like the look when they're chopped at the top. Chopped at the bulb to make the multi-stems looks nice, but you don't find them like that in stores, and I'd be scared to try it myself. Ok Comboomer posted:
What I saw were a little bigger and the bulbs were further out of the ground like little pineapples, but yeah, roughly.
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Jan 25, 2022 15:13
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You all are making me want to go back to Lowes and buy the Ponytail trio. I have too many plants already so I was hoping to just wait on buying any small ponytails and instead try to score a big one from Marketplace or whatever from someone who doesn't realize how much the value shoots up when they get larger. I just like filling my living room with palms and palm-likes because it's a nice contrast to Minnesota on the other side of the glass. Ok Comboomer posted:One of the big reason they’re chopped is for easy/cheaper importation from Latin American grow farms. Can you explain this more? Do they chop the tops, then import them all rolling around in boxes like potatoes, then re-pot and let the foliage grow again before shipping to domestic stores? Wallet posted:Interesting. I had assumed it was because they fill out faster and look fuller, sort of like nursery folks will prune back shrubs and poo poo to make them branch and fill out (and then the second year in the ground the lovely growth they force dies back and your shrub is suddenly smaller than when you bought it). Can you explain this more too? Isn't pruning shrubs to make them branch and out a normal and generally good thing to do? How are they doing it in a way that makes it "forced" and unsustainable? Lakitu7 fucked around with this message at 19:17 on Jan 25, 2022 |
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Jan 25, 2022 19:14
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I went back to Lowes because I wanted to buy one of those triple-ponytails. Every single one was full of mealybugs. I told the plant section employee and he was like "again? I'll get the Dawn" and sprays them all down with a spray bottle of dawn+water. You'd think they'd at least be able to expense some proper insecticidal soap. I guess I'll hope they show up someplace else... My FLF and palms are doing okay in the winter but we have a furnace-attached humidifier and it keeps it at 30%. That's about as high as I can crank it before the windows are getting puddles. The only thing that's suffering is a Dieffenbachia that I tried to do in low-light ~200lux. It has symptoms of low humidity but I think it'd be able to handle that if it had more light, so I moved it to the bathroom that has more of both and I'll put a pothos in the low-light spot. The Calathea and Pepperomia are thriving in the same situation with the Dieffenbachia failed.
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Jan 30, 2022 16:30
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subpar anachronism posted:It's generally very dry in my apartment, especially in winter, and I don't mist or run a humidifier ever. The only thing that seems to struggle in my place is rex begonias. I don't think a FLF actually needs the humidity boost if you're watering regularly and it's getting enough light. Mine lived in a west window (right above where the radiator ran, even) happily until it got too big and I passed it on to someone else with more room. Chad Sexington posted:Does look like some light root rot. The roots weren't mushy or decayed, but some were looking a little darker and unhealthy. Looking at my pot, the drainage holes were all in the middle, which is slightly raised, so water may have pooled in the lower area. I just aired it out, drilled a bunch of holes and repotted it closer to the glass door and now we'll wait and see. Maybe a touch but certainly things could be a heck of a lot worse. If root rot gets bad enough you can tell quickly by the rancid smell, too.
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Jan 30, 2022 21:24
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I've got a handful of low-light stuff (Ferns, Fittonia, Calathea, Pepperomia, Pothos, Snake plants) 7-8 ft from windows and they all seem to be doing well for the last 6mo or so since I bought them. The Bamboo Palm was one one them for about 3mo until I got the Kentia and moved it into a smaller corner that also happens to be 2ft from a sliding glass door. It's been happy enough to flower, despite our Minnesota winter gloom. They're mostly in rooms with quite a few large windows and room lighting that's on a lot, though, so perhaps better than average "8ft from a window" situations. Maybe I'll find out in time that it wasn't enough and they'll all take a turn for the worse, but it hasn't happened yet. Certainly ActionJackson's palm will do better closer to the window, and artificial light wouldn't hurt either, but I'm not sure the current spot will be quite such a disaster? Still, I think these posters have been doing this a lot longer than me, so AJ if I steered you wrong, I apologize! At the least you all convinced me to order a proper light meter instead of relying on a phone app, and I'll re-evaluate some of my placement choices when that arrives.
Lakitu7 fucked around with this message at 01:04 on Feb 19, 2022 |
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Feb 19, 2022 01:02
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Arsenic Lupin posted:(sobs in envy) I would take home all the scented geraniums. Every single one. While we're wistful about far-away nurseries, I don't know where you live or how it compares to Logees, but when I used to live in Sacramento I loved to ride out to this place in Vacaville: https://morningsunherbfarm.com. They've got a whole greenhouse full of weird scented geraniums, one of weird scented mints, one of weird scented sages, one of weird scented basils, etc. For mail order I don't know how they compare to the places in post 3 but in-person it was so amazing to just go and smell everything. It'd be a reasonable drive for any SF-area goons. Since I moved to MN I've never been able to find even regular boring lemon-scented geraniums. One nursery in town has a greenhouse just for geraniums and I thought I'd hit the jackpot but there's not a single scented one except "citronella". I found unlabeled "citronella" once someplace else that the attendant called "lemon geraniums" and I bought one because it's been so long that I've forgotten what the real thing even smells like, then realized my mistake the next time I saw them at Home Depot and compared  . Somehow I never even thought about trying to order one online. Maybe I'll try it in the Spring, but I don't know how those do for overwintering indoors? That citronella I bought is etiolated as heck but it's hanging in there and should survive until I can get it outside again in May. Wallet posted:A huge chunk of the plants that are sold as wanting low light are actually just capable of surviving long term in low light, they don't do better in it. Dracaena (snake plants) will grow wildly faster if you get them near some actual light. Epipremnum will continue to grow fine without much light, but the leaves will get three or four times the size if you get them in front of a window, etc.
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Feb 19, 2022 02:40
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Arsenic Lupin posted:Richter's Nursery. I ordered a peppermint geranium, several thymes, and a microminiature rose, and they all arrived in California in immaculate shape. They have 20 different varieties of lavender. Dang, I'll have to check this out in the Spring. Thanks!
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Feb 19, 2022 06:03
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I've never tried a Pinstripe but my Calathea Leopardina has been perfectly happy at 28% humidity all winter. I just use a Blumat so it's never not mildly moist. The same goes for the Maidenhair Fern and a Triostar. Home Depot just blessed me with a Rattlesnake Calathea for $14 last weekend, so I'll see how that goes, but I'm hesitant to dive too hard into Calatheas when they have such a diva reputation. Mine are getting rain (now melted snow) water and I've never tried otherwise. Some folks say that's a big deal and others say it isn't. It probably depends on your tap water situation.
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Feb 19, 2022 19:12
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For another price datapoint, I bought a tiny 1" pot of non-variegated String of Hearts at a local nursery here (MN) for $6 last week, with strings of about 6". I didn't even know that they flower, so that's something to look forward to!
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Mar 4, 2022 23:30
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Shops around here sell "peony cages" that are basically an oversized tomato cage, sometimes painted in various colors. This might look worse than just leaving them alone.
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May 23, 2022 17:59
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Arsenic Lupin posted:I bought a streptocarpus from Logee's and can't find African violet soil anywhere local -- apparently they're out of style, though they were ubiquitous in my childhood. Anyway, in desperation, I used some cactus soil I had lying around and mixed in sphagnum moss. This drains waaay too fast for the poor sad streptocarpus, I'm having to water daily, and the plant is unhappy. It's time for mail order. I didn't realize people use any sort of specialized soil for African violets? The one I have at home and the one my office mate keeps in our office are each in their original big box store soils that look like almost entirely peat with just a spoonful of perlite. Mine came in a pot with no drainage, and my office mate keeps his soggy daily to a point of fungus gnats, so they seem pretty darn tolerant? They're both thriving and flowering. I have no experience with streptocarpus so they could be different but I find it hard to believe "African violet soil" is really needed for African violets.
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Jun 30, 2022 05:47
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Arsenic Lupin posted:"Almost entirely peat with a spoonful of perlite" IS African violet soil, or at least what it looks like. And this isn't an African violet, it's a streptocarpus, which is more delicate with regard to its watering and drainage requirements. Yeah, but most big-brand commercial potting soil is also "almost entire peat with a spoonful of perlite" (plus a bunch of fertilizers), isn't it? So, I'm confused what would be different about African Violet Soil other than an inflated price? When I've needed more drainage in stuff I just take my regular potting soil and add in much more perlite, and for the real succulent/cactus stuff I add chick grit (crushed granite) and that's done well for me. Aroids get a handful of "orchid bark" thrown in too. Arsenic Lupin posted:Pretty sure I just killed the streptocarpus by overwatering yesterday; dramatic loss of leaves. Will probably replace with an African violet. Wow, that was quick!  From what I've seen AV's are pretty drat forgiving; they only flower in mid-bright light, but even in low + soggy they still push out leaves and survive.
Lakitu7 fucked around with this message at 18:03 on Jun 30, 2022 |
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Jun 30, 2022 18:01
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To be fair, western civilization only "discovered" African Violets in 1892, vs humans have been accumulating knowledge about roses and orchids since antiquity.
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Jul 1, 2022 14:53
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Beautiful! What do you use for the shade tarp? Do they still get water through it?
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Jul 5, 2022 15:05
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skylined! posted:Just basic cheap 50% shadecloth and yea water passes through easily. The wood lattice and side of my house seems to block heavy winds pretty well as well - zone 8b and we've had a lot of strong storms lately. Thanks! I've got a corner of deck/balcony that used to have shade from a tree, but the tree came down last winter. I'd like to put a few plants out there to enjoy more sun for the summer than I can give them indoors, but I learned quickly that even the ~2h of direct sun it now gets is too much. Is 50% dark enough to avoid sunburn for pretty much anything, or are there some plants where you'd have to consider the 60-75%?
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Jul 5, 2022 18:08
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My oxalis triangularis has been looking sad for a few months. The leaves slowly turn white, wither, and die. A couple new ones come up every day. I thought this was just normal going into dormancy, but it happened very slowly rather than all at once (like, over the course of 2 months, it went from right->left across the plant), and now some of the recently-sprouted leaves have started to have the same problem. Is this a fungal infection or normal dormancy behavior? It's about 1.5feet from a large bay window, west-facing, so it gets plenty of indirect light and maybe an hour of direct just before sunset. The A/C is set around 78-80. Is this just a combo of dormancy + too warm for it? From what I've read I expected dormancy to be more of all-at-once rather than a slow change over 2mo.  [edit] Nevermind, I think. The back of the leaves have tiny white dots that scrape off but don't move, and a couple of live black thrips. So, it's probably gooddamn trips, unless the thrips are just newly-spread co-occurring issue on top of regular dormancy/heat issues. I'll treat the thrips, but does any of the other symptoms sound like dormancy/heat, or the thrips have been here longer than I think? Lakitu7 fucked around with this message at 18:09 on Jul 21, 2022 |
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Jul 21, 2022 17:58
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That Old Ganon posted:I'm getting access to a (tiny) garden plot in Denver, CO and I'm wondering if anyone would have any ideas for herbs, fruit, or vegetables that are native to the area, or might thrive in mile high conditions. Whatever you do, don't buy those drat "bag a bug" beetle traps. They catch a ton but they attract many tons more onto your plants that otherwise wouldn't have found them in the first place.
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Jul 28, 2022 14:09
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Blumat classic, but not the knockoff products, actually work. Set them up a week before you go so you can monitor and see if they need to be adjusted.
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Aug 5, 2022 13:57
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Blumat is basically fancy reusable wick watering that you can use more longterm if you want to. I use most of mine permanently because I travel so much. For smaller plants like orchids you're more likely to over than under water with them. Pots with drainage are a good idea, as always, and keeping your reservoir below and not above the plants. This is why setting it all up ahead of time is safest if you can do it.
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Aug 5, 2022 15:23
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I had powdery mildew that got out of hand on a pea plant and a couple of peonies while I was on vacation. Neem alone wasn't doing it, so I went googling in search of something stronger. I landed on Potassium Bicarbonate powder. A tablespoon/gallon mixed with a couple teaspoons of neem/gallon (you just need a surfactant of some kind, so why not one that's also mildly antifungal) is a goddamn wonder-drug. The first application knocked the mildew back about 2/3 in a week. It's even supported by some actual research. Highly recommended!
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Aug 17, 2022 14:47
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My post right above yours 
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Aug 17, 2022 22:26
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pokie posted:Do you spray with it or what? Yes, mix with water in that ratio and spray once a week. Avoid spraying during the midday hot afternoon sun.
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Aug 18, 2022 12:09
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That Old Ganon posted:Just wanted to share the Japanese beetle carnage on the Concord grapes around the garden plot I'm apart of. If either of you has those "bag a bug" beetle traps, throw them out. They're part of the problem. My anecdotal evidence agrees that we had far, far more beetles the year I had the traps. This year without the traps they do some damage but the vines grow fast enough to be mostly okay. After 2 years of fussing with these mystery grapes left by the previous owner, I'm pretty sure they're just regular wild grapes that don't taste very good and I'm just going to rip them out next year anyway. Once those are gone, there's nothing the stupid beetles eat anymore, but if I wanted to keep the grapes, Amazon sells bee/bird netting for cheap that is supposed to work well if you can live with the eyesore.
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Aug 23, 2022 18:28
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| # ¿ May 15, 2024 10:26 |
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I pulled mine indoors last Tuesday because we were getting our first frost and the forecast was staying with lows in the 30s. Minnesota 4a.
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Oct 1, 2022 16:57
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